Cycling Advocates
Ride to Pro Walk Pro Bike 2006

Back from the cold world to the very warm temperatures
of Southern California.

Today was a lazy day. Picked up the bicycle
and panniers from the train station around noon. Walked old Sacramento.
Interesting with the wooden sidewalks but seems to lack quality shops to
truly attract tourists. The stores seemed to sell more bazaar type merchandise
than local artist stuff. Food is more street food type than innovative.
As an example, while there were a number of ice cream and yogurt stores,
none made their own product. The area was worth a walk but not much more.

Then took an underpass to the mall on ‘K’
Street. It was farmers’ market day with about 10 or so stalls selling
some fruit and some vegetables. Time for a few plums and peaches.

Downtown is pleasant with mature trees along
the way. There were a number of vacant store along the walk. The quality
of the stores was not at a level that would attract too many people to the
downtown core.

The state capital buildings with its adjacent
parks downtown added much to the beauty of the city. Mature trees, some
very tall palms, flanked the roads providing colour and warmth.

A streetcar ran through downtown to the suburbs.
The tracks were on the road for most part with some sections separated from
traffic. The streetcar would consist of a couple of double truncated cars
and would be expanded to four units during rush hours which were a block
length.

The cars required climbing a few stairs, i.e.
high cars only. That did not stop some cyclists from taking their bikes
in. Downtown, the streetcar stops had a ramp for the front door of each
train for wheelchairs, strollers, and such.

Cycling
Facilities

Bike Lanes

One street downtown that I came upon had
bike lanes. They were of a different material so different coloured than
the traffic lanes.

Bike Rack

The city uses two-bike bike racks downtown.
These low profile models had moveable bolts to pin in the frame and the
bolt could be locked in with a lock. The racks also had attached a cable
that could be wrapped around the bike.

The unit’s pavement footprint is very
low, in fact less than the post and ring type and much less than conventional
racks.

Bike Racks on Buses

The buses had the two bike racks attached and
seemed to be reasonably utilized.

Cyclists

On the street were some spandex cyclists getting
their exercise. There were also people in ordinary daily dress cycling on
the sidewalk. One was cycling casually while talking on his cell phone.
Later on I saw a bike cop cycling down a street while picking up his messages
on his cell phone. Sacramento does have bike cops to patrol downtown.